THE RESIDENT
New York, New York
Natalie
“This man is your boss?” Shannon, stared at Dr. Ashton’s professional picture on the Park Avenue Group website as we shared the backseat of a cab. “Are you shitting me right now?”
“I wish.” I’d done nothing but fantasize about the possibility of his lips touching mine since the moment I left the private practice. I’d incessantly replayed the way he looked me up and down, the way he caressed my hand, and I was now cursing myself for not taking him up on his offer of that personal office tour. In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I wondered how I was going to be able to get any work done around him.
How do any of the women there work when he’s around?
“Well, you’ll have to keep me posted on everything that happens when you officially start there.” Shannon returned my phone to me and looked outside her window. “You think there’s a chance this D-DOCTOR guy will be halfway as hot as your boss?”
“Doubt it.” I looked at Dr. Ashton’s sexy picture one last time and closed the screen. “But I think the sex with him will be amazing.”
“Let’s hope so. Remind me why you begged me to accompany you on your date tonight. Are you that nervous?”
“I’m not asking you to accompany me,” I said. “I just need you to go inside the restaurant first, look for his table, and just call and tell me what he looks like, so I’ll be prepared if he’s not as cute as I hope he is. Oh, and I’ll also need you to confirm that he doesn’t give off any serial killer vibes.”
“In that case, I’ll just walk right up to him and ask when was the last time he murdered someone,” she said flatly. “Will that work for you?”
“Actually, yes. That’s perfect. Can you do that?”
“No.” She laughed and the cab stopped right in front of Per Se a few seconds later.
I followed her out, taking a seat on a bench that belonged to the café next door.
“In all seriousness,” Shannon said, “Are you sure you just don’t want to go in and meet him for yourself and just have me watch you guys from afar? I think that’s how most people usually do these things ...”
“I’m sure. I want you to check him out first.”
“Okay, then.” She shrugged and made her way up the steps, skipping everyone in line with relative ease.
Minutes later, she called my phone.
“Yeah?” I answered. “Do you see him?”
“Not yet, but wow ... This place really is nice. How come we’ve never booked a reservation here for ourselves?” She paused. “Never mind. I just glanced at the menu. Three hundred twenty-five dollars for the chef’s special? Per person? These people are out of their damn minds ...”
“It’s a five-star restaurant, Shannon.”
“Right ... Which table did D-DOCTOR say he’d be waiting for you again?”
“Twelve.”
“Okay, that’s in the back.” She paused for a while and I heard the sound of several glasses clink in the background. “I think I see him. He’s looking at his phone.”
“Is he attractive?”
“I can’t tell yet, but he’s clenching his jaw for some reason. He also fills out a suit quite nicely.”
As if she could already tell what was running through my mind, she didn’t give me a single second to ask another question before listing out the details.
“His suit is dark grey,” she said. “And it looks like its custom-made. From the way it fits his body, I’m pretty sure he has to work out. Also, blue silk tie — designer probably, sparkling silver cufflinks, and perfectly shined leather wingtip shoes. Is this the part where I walk up to him and ask if he’s a serial killer?”
“No, but I appreciate the fact that you remembered.” I let out a sigh of relief, feeling hopeful that one of the men I’d met online might finally live up to all our conversations. I started to head into the restaurant, ready to tell Shannon she could hang up, but I heard her suck in a deep breath and stopped dead in my tracks.
“What’s going on?” I asked. “Shan, are you there?”
“Yeah, I’m here.” Her voice was low. “He just looked up at me.”
“Okay, well ...” I stepped into the restroom instead of moving into the dining room. “What does he look like?”
“He’s sexy as fuck.”
“You can do better than that. Describe him.”
“Um ...” She sighed, never a good sign. “He’s got jet black hair, deep blue eyes, and he got that whole ‘I can make you pregnant with one look’ thing going on.”
“And on a scale of one to ten?” I glanced at my reflection in the bathroom mirror, adjusting the top of my dress one last time. “What is he?”
“He’s a goddamn fifty,” she said. “But you know, he kind of reminds me of that picture of your boss you showed me on the way here.”
“Dr. Ashton?” I rolled my eyes. “Please. I don’t have to deal with seeing him again until I start my residency.”
“Well, if you’re not interested in seeing your boss until you start your residency, stay outside because I’ve walked past him five times and I’m pretty sure the guy you call D-DOCTOR is Dr. Ashton.”
What the fuck? I stepped out of the restroom and slowly made my way to the dining room, grabbing a menu and holding it up to my face as I walked to the backroom.
I stepped behind a floral display as he looked up again, as he checked his watch and clenched his jaw.
Oh. My. Fucking. God ...
I didn’t want to believe it, but it was undoubtedly him. And all of sudden, everything he’d messaged me about over the past few months added up and made perfect sense. The late night claims of reading over his nurses’ reports, the need to correct me with “I’m a fucking doctor” each time I jokingly called him a “maybe intern,” and the very username D-DOCTOR itself.
He wasn’t making anything up at all ...
“I can’t do this.” I whispered into the phone. “What the hell am I supposed to do now?”
“Go over there and have a laugh with him about this since you just saw each other a couple hours ago. That’s what I would do.”
I contemplated that scenario for all of two seconds before shooting down the idea. I’d told this man my filthiest fantasies, casually told him about my desire to be fucked until I couldn’t breathe, and I was not about to let him know that the same woman who once told him all the ways I used my vibrator was his new resident.
I watched him for a few more minutes — partly unable to turn away from how sexy he was, partly still in utter disbelief. When he looked down at his watch again, I turned around and quickly walked away.
“Let’s go, Shannon,” I said. “We’re leaving.” I ended the call and made my way outside. I paced the sidewalk as I contemplated my next move, and then I felt my phone vibrating in my hands. Dr. Ashton.
I stared at my phone’s screen as it rang, as it finally went to voicemail.
He called again.
And again.
Shit ...
I hovered my finger over the ignore button, tempted to let this night die and act as if I’d never met him at all, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.
“Hello?” I answered.
“Hello. Did you forget about meeting me tonight?”
“Not at all ...”
“Then should I assume that you’re running late?”
God, his voice ... “No, um. I’m sorry.”
“You’re sorry for what?”
“That I can’t — That I’m not coming to meet you tonight.”
He was silent for several seconds. “I think I deserve an explanation from you, at the very least.”
“I just can’t come,” I said, swallowing. “But I want you to know that I have a really good reason for not showing up. I promise.”
“Then tell me what that goddamn reason is, since you’re doing exactly what you said you wouldn’t do by standing me up.”
“You just have to believe me on this ... It’s a really good reason.”
“I see.” His voice was tight. “I would’ve appreciated you calling me and letting me know that you were planning all along to waste my time — especially after all these months that we’ve messaged each other online. I would’ve appreciated you doing that before I got here and spent over thirty minutes waiting on you.”
“I am so sorry.” I moved away from the entrance once I saw Shannon walking down the steps. “I really didn’t plan on standing you up tonight until the last minute.”
“You decided this shit at the last minute?”
“Yes, but ... There’s no reason why we still can’t continue messaging each other online after this. Maybe that’s where this should’ve stayed anyway. We can still be friends, right?”
He hung up in my face.